Rets are Blizzard's favourite child. Following vanilla and ever since (2006), they have been the most OP spec in the history of the game with the possible exception of WOTLK DK's. In fact, Rets qualify as one of the most OP specs in the history of MMORG's in general. Key abilities include:

-The longest stun in the World of Warcraft ever.
-Immunity to being kited.
-Bubble that make one completely immune to damage while still being able to attack.
-Abilities such as Lay On Hands that instantly restore one's health to 100%.
-Infinite Mana.
-Ability to use hearthstone (RECALL) while being bubbled.
-Excellent heals while dishing out excellent DPS with no penalty on their DPS.
-Excellent DPS cooldowns completely unsuited for a DPS/Healing hybrid such as Ret.
-Immunity to being griefed or ganked while out in the world questing. If you go one-to-one with a Ret you will lose, if you go two versus one against a Ret you will still lose, and if you try to go three to one against a Ret they will just bubble and hearthstone.
-Excellent in soloing Raid content.
-Fastest mount speed in the World of Warcraft.

Well, rogues have always been one of the least-played classes. In Cata they were just above locks, and in Mists locks pulled ahead. Paladins are the most widely played class. According to realmpop.com, there are more than twice as many (level-90) paladins as rogues. It shouldn't really be that shocking that there are more ret pallies than rogues.

ummm werent rogues and warlocks the least played classes? shouldnt that mean this has always been the case O-O

"I was a normal baby for 30 seconds, then ninjas stole my mamma" - Deadpool
"so what do we do?" "well jack, you stand there and say 'gee rocket raccoon I'm so glad you brought that Unfeasibly large cannon with you..' and i go like this BRAKKA BRAKKA BRAKKA" - Rocket Raccoon

Rets are Blizzard's favourite child. Following vanilla and ever since (2006), they have been the most OP spec in the history of the game with the possible exception of WOTLK DK's. In fact, Rets qualify as one of the most OP specs in the history of MMORG's in general. Key abilities include:

-The longest stun in the World of Warcraft ever.
-Immunity to being kited.
-Bubble that make one completely immune to damage while still being able to attack.
-Abilities such as Lay On Hands that instantly restore one's health to 100%.
-Infinite Mana.
-Ability to use hearthstone (RECALL) while being bubbled.
-Excellent heals while dishing out excellent DPS with no penalty on their DPS.
-Excellent DPS cooldowns completely unsuited for a DPS/Healing hybrid such as Ret.
-Immunity to being griefed or ganked while out in the world questing. If you go one-to-one with a Ret you will lose, if you go two versus one against a Ret you will still lose, and if you try to go three to one against a Ret they will just bubble and hearthstone.
-Excellent in soloing Raid content.
-Fastest mount speed in the World of Warcraft.

------------------------------------->With all the above in mind, it is not hard to see why there are more Rets than Rogues.

Mate rets where a underdog class all the while till the beggigning of wotlk, in patch 3.0 then they become OP, after wotlk released rets were alreay fixed, since then it was a broken class all the way until 5.0 where they got a decent fizx with the updated talents, don't tell lies you noob

It's probably fair to say that DPS is the most popular role of choice for players. Some may not want the responsibility associated with tanking or healing, others may just not be engaged by that style of play. Retribution is the only tree of the most popular class that offers the DPS role. It doesn't surprise me that much, in isolation, that there happen to be more rets than rogues at this point in time...

Well, rogues have always been one of the least-played classes. In Cata they were just above locks, and in Mists locks pulled ahead. Paladins are the most widely played class. According to realmpop.com, there are more than twice as many (level-90) paladins as rogues. It shouldn't really be that shocking that there are more ret pallies than rogues.

rogues were less played then warlocks in bc, wrath, most of cata (till daggers) and now.

Our talents really are sad. I just counted and 12(!) of them are passive abilities (including the two poisons). Compare that to my mage in which the ONLY passive talent is cauterize. Not to say that talents like Prey on the Weak are bad, but holy fuck are they boring.

rogues were less played then warlocks in bc, wrath, most of cata (till daggers) and now.

Max level warlock population was under rogues for all of Cata. I remember looking at it quite a few times at the start of the expansion. Warlocks, rogues, and shaman were all in the gutter as far as population goes.

They weren't below locks for all of Wrath either. They were almost always close though. Shaman rep really hasn't been all that great either, especially in Cata.

Our talents really are sad. I just counted and 12(!) of them are passive abilities (including the two poisons). Compare that to my mage in which the ONLY passive talent is cauterize. Not to say that talents like Prey on the Weak are bad, but holy fuck are they boring.

Its not just that they are passive, but that they basically change nothing with the exception of the last tier. I mean say blindside was a talent, that would be passive but it would change things. Anticipation as well changes things. And really theres only 2 tiers that matter for most raiding, the defensive tier and the last one. The defensive tier also changes nothing as either you simply don't die, you get healing from something you already do, or you get even more mitigation from something you already do.

I'm just worried finetuning some talents is not going to make the Rogue a more popular class;- we've been neglected for quite awhile since the burning crusade

Ranged/Casters are just given all that made the Rogue so valuable in the past in terms of utility;- and the "competition" and drive for people to be equal in terms of DPS made it so pures and hybrids are equally as useful when purely looking at damage. That's in theory;- not even mentioning most other classes have 75% of a bosses room at their disposal to DPS from.

Maybe I'm old fashioned;- but hunters; rogues and mages are the three classes that can only perform a single role ever - and Rogue being the only melee one;- we're just supposed to have a damage bonus somewhere to be favorable of a class.

Bringing this to the attention of Blizzard over the years has gotten us the response, "We've balanced classes to an extend where it's about the player; not the class" - and because of that ignorance; the rogue is where it stands now : near extinction

I'm just worried finetuning some talents is not going to make the Rogue a more popular class;- we've been neglected for quite awhile since the burning crusade

Ranged/Casters are just given all that made the Rogue so valuable in the past in terms of utility;- and the "competition" and drive for people to be equal in terms of DPS made it so pures and hybrids are equally as useful when purely looking at damage. That's in theory;- not even mentioning most other classes have 75% of a bosses room at their disposal to DPS from.

Maybe I'm old fashioned;- but hunters; rogues and mages are the three classes that can only perform a single role ever - and Rogue being the only melee one;- we're just supposed to have a damage bonus somewhere to be favorable of a class.
Bringing this to the attention of Blizzard over the years has gotten us the response, "We've balanced classes to an extend where it's about the player; not the class" - and because of that ignorance; the rogue is where it stands now : near extinction

We are in the minority now - and this most obvious thing here you stated gets smashed down by bads that play hybrid classes constantly because they are so bad this will only make them look worse.

Maybe I'm old fashioned;- but hunters; rogues and mages are the three classes that can only perform a single role ever - and Rogue being the only melee one;- we're just supposed to have a damage bonus somewhere to be favorable